The present invention relates to cigarette packages, and more particularly to cigarette packages for containing a plurality of cigarettes and allowing for the extraction thereof of cigaretes one at a time without disturbing the other cigarettes in the package.
Various cigarette packages have been proposed to accomplish the above objective. The following U.S. patents are representative of such known packages.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,158,826 teaches a cigarette package. The package consists of a cardboard outer box having a hinged top cover closing the open top of the box. The package also has a hinged bottom cover closing the open bottom of the box. With reference to FIGS. 2 and 4, an insert in the box is folded back and forth to form a series of elongated cigarette containing compartments. Alternating ones of the compartments are open to the open box top and the open box bottom. Each compartment holds one cigarette. In FIGS. 5 and 7, the box insert is corrugated to form elongated cigarette containing compartments.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,160,930 is by the same inventor as U.S. Pat. No. 1,158,826 and teaches a cigarette box essentially identical to that of his prior patent except for details of construction wherein the ends of the cigarettes extend upwardly beyond the top ends of the insert forming the elongated cigarette compartments.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,164,782 teaches a flat cigarette box having a corrugated insert forming spaced apart partitions. Cigarettes are located in the spaces between adjacent cigaretes.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,174,872 teaches a cigarette box which has two removable trays. Each tray has spaced apart partitions forming a number of cigarette containing compartments. When the cigarettes of one tray are used up, that tray is removed to gain access to the cigarettes contained in the other tray.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,870,299 teaches a cigarette package fabricated to two layers of paper or the like. One paper layer is flat and the other paper layer is formed with a plurality of side-by-side loops. The two layers are adhesively attached to each other. The loops in one layer form compartments for individual cigarettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,528,743 teaches a cigarette case having an insert 11. The insert 11 has a back wall 16, two side walls 17 and 18, and a bottom ledge 19. The top and front sides of the insert 11 are open. A bar 22 extends across the open front side of the insert. The bar 22 has grooves which cooperate with the insert back wall 16 for holding individual cigarettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,419 teaches a cigarette box having an insert of fluted stiff paper defining elongated channels for holding individual cigarettes. At the bottom end of each compartment is a paper spring which abuts the bottom end of the cigarette and biases the cigarettes upwardly to project out of the top end of each compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,249 teaches a cigarette box which has a portion of its front wall hinged so that it can be pivoted outwardly. The cigarettes in the box are individually encased between two layers of plastic. The top edge of the hinged portion of the front wall has a cutting edge for cutting the cigarettes free from the encasing layers of plastic.